Pope calls on Europe's Catholics to take in refugees – Washington Post

By Anthony Faiola and Michael Birnbaum,
MUNICH — Issuing a broad appeal to Europe’s Catholics, Pope Francis on Sunday called on “every” parish, religious community, monastery and sanctuary to take in one refugee family — an appeal that, if honored, would offer shelter to tens of thousands.
Francis delivered his call as thousands of asylum-seekers detained for days in Hungary streamed into Germany and Austria, and as a small but rising number of volunteers were offering to take some in. But although the pope’s appeal was greeted with applause in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, some Germans were asking how far their country could go in receiving more refugees.
The pope, who has thrust himself into polarizing debates over climate change and free-market economics, has again entered the fray, this time over how Europe should handle its largest wave of refugees since the Balkan wars of the 1990s. The majority of those coming are Muslims from Syria, Iraq and other nations, and Francis weighed in as anti-migrant politicians, including senior European leaders, are wielding religion as a weapon.
Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, where Roman Catholicism is the largest religion, last week proclaimed that what he called Europe’s Christian identity is under threat because “those arriving have been raised in another religion, and represent a radically different culture.”
[Hungary’s prime minister becomes Europe’s Donald Trump]
Slovakia has declared that it will grant asylum only to Christians. “We don’t have any mosques in Slovakia, so how can Muslims be integrated if they are not going to like it here?” Ivan Netik, a spokesman for Slovakia’s interior ministry, told the BBC last month.
Francis, a leader already known for mending the sometimes wobbly bridges between Catholicism and other faiths, delivered a direct challenge to such thinking.
“Facing the tragedy of tens of thousands of refugees — fleeing death by war and famine, and journeying towards the hope of life — the Gospel calls, asking of us to be close to the smallest and forsaken. To give them a concrete hope,” he said. “And not just to tell them: ‘Have courage, be patient!’”
[If the pope had his way, European parishes would house up to 500,000 refugees]
At Munich’s sprawling train …Read More